Show Notes
Is Donald Trump mad? Or is he a practitioner of the Madman Theory — and therefore not mad at all?
James D. Boys, author of U.S. Grand Strategy and the Madman Theory: From Nixon to Trump, argues that the Madman Theory is not madness, but the performance of madness: a tactic by which a sane leader feigns irrationality to make an adversary believe there is even a one percent chance of overwhelming, disproportionate force.
In this new Conflicted Conversation, Boys explains:
What the Madman Theory means
Donald Trump, unpredictability and Trump Derangement Syndrome
Nuclear strategy, Eisenhower, and Cold War brinkmanship
Barry Goldwater, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the politics of nuclear fear
Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger and the Madman Theory in Vietnam
Trump’s use of Madman tactics against North Korea, Iran, NATO and trade partners
Whether Trump’s second-term grand strategy is chaos, coercion or calculated geopolitical pressure
Follow James on X: https://x.com/jamesdboys
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm
Find us on X: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
This episode was produced and edited by Thomas Small. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
More from CONFLICTED
We welcome back friend of the show Baraa Shiban, who was recently on the front lines in Yemen. The Houthis have surrounded Taiz once again. Can the city that has defied Yemen's tyrants for generations hold out against another devastating siege?
In this latest Conflicted Conversation, Ruben Andersson, professor of social anthropology at Oxford University's Department of International Development, discusses his new book Age of Security: The Rise of a Global Obsession.
In this latest Conflicted Conversation, journalist Adrian Wooldridge discusses his latest book Centrists of the World Unite: The Lost Genius of Liberalism.
Sudan’s civil war has become a regional proxy struggle, with the UAE, Egypt, Iran, Turkey and other powers backing rival armed camps as the country fragments under the pressure of war. But while the RSF’s foreign support has drawn intense scrutiny, the forces sustaining Sudan’s army — from Islamist networks to drones, money and weapons supplied from abroad — have received far less attention.
The war is widening, diplomacy has stalled, and the Middle East is once again sliding towards escalation as the relationship between Israel and the Gulf states grows closer while pressure on Iran is mounting at sea, in the air, and across its network of regional allies.